06/22/2022
A collaboration between the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center and Meals for Good, Inc.
Read the full report HERE.
Excerpt:
“East Harlem and the South Bronx in New York City have some of the highest rates of poverty and food insecurity in the country. The poverty rate in East Harlem is 34.0 percent and in the South Bronx it is 39.6 percent, compared to 16.0 percent Citywide. The rate of food insecurity in East Harlem is 22.4 percent and in the South Bronx it is 23.8 percent, compared to 12.9 percent Citywide. Poverty, along with lack of access to affordable housing and employment opportunities with fair wages and benefits, is closely associated with poor health and food insecurity. Furthermore, the
COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated many of these issues, increasing food insecurity rates and putting many communities with already
high rates of poverty and diet-related disease at increased risk.
To combat the issue of poverty and food insecurity in East Harlem and the South Bronx, Meals For Good, Inc (MFG) developed a
supermarket-based food voucher and gift card program funded by the Robin Hood Foundation, a poverty-fighting charitable
organization based in New York MFG created vouchers and gift cards for buying foods at designated supermarkets (vouchers
in East Harlem), and any grocery store or bodega (gift cards in the South Bronx). MFG partnered with three community-based
organizations in East Harlem and one in the South Bronx to distribute the vouchers and gift cards to residents experiencing food insecurity in June and July 2021.”
